Tories outstrip Labour in party fundraising stakes

Conservatives given more than £10m compared with Labour's £4.9m in last three months of 2009

Conservative deputy chairman, Lord Ashcroft, centre, with William and Ffion Hague. An Ashcroft company faces an Electoral Commission investigation over donations to the Tories. Photograph: Steve Burton/PA

Donations to political parties soared to the third highest level on record at the end of last year, with the Conservatives raising nearly double the money of the rival main parties put together.

The Conservatives received more than £10m compared with Labour's £4.9m and the Liberal Democrats' £1m in the last three months of 2009. Donations to the Tories included about £100,000 from companies owned by the party's deputy chairman, Lord Ashcroft, who is under investigation to establish whether his donations via one company comply with electoral law.

The Electoral Commission today named more than 1,200 individuals and organisations who gave to political parties at the end of 2009. It revealed the gulf in party funding sources, with the Conservatives largely reliant on donations from the City and wealthy individuals and Labour increasingly dependent on the unions for money to fund a general election campaign.

The figures prompted David Blunkett, the former cabinet minister running Labour's fundraising campaign, to email a cash appeal to all party members. "The announcement has confirmed what we've known for a long time – we're the underdogs in this election," he wrote.

The figures also showed the Conservatives received more than £80,000 in sponsorship from Bearwood Corporate Services, which is owned by their deputy chairman. The company is under investigation by the Electoral Commission after allegations that it is a front to allow Ashcroft, who has not confirmed if he is registered to pay tax in the UK, to give to the party. That inquiry has taken more than a year already. A finding that Bearwood was not operating as a proper business in the UK would rule the £5m given via this route impermissible.

A second company owned by Ashcroft, Flying Lion, also gave more than £20,000 worth of trips to Tory central office. The figures do not reveal who went on the trips but it follows criticisms of Ashcroft accompanying the shadow foreign secretary, William Hague, on official visits abroad.

Some 120 donations to Labour of 342 received in the period were from trade unions while the Conservatives raised millions from individual donors. They include the City tycoon David Rowland, who donated £738,000, the hedge funder Stanley Fink (£501,650), and the former owner of BMI airline, Michael Bishop (£335,000). Michael Farmer, who made his fortune by founding RK Capital Management, an Anglo-US metal-trading hedge fund, gave £274,000. Lord Harris, founder of retail chain Carpertright, who was this week heralded as one of the key sponsors of Labour's new chain of secondary schools, gave the Tories £250,000. Lord John Sainbury, the president of the supermarket chain, gave £500,000.

Labour too has some wealthy benefactors. Lord David Sainsbury, the former science minister, also heir to the supermarket chain and John Sainsbury's cousin, gave £1m. Sir Nigel Doughty, the party's assistant treasurer who made his money in private equity investments, donated £1.01m. Both parties received donations from Selfridges, £10,000 for Labour and £30,000 for the Tories.

Blunkett, who has advocated adopting an Obama-style online campaign to encourage thousands of people to give small donations, this week made comments suggesting that Labour's fundraising drive has stalled. Last month he told the Guardian the party still needed to raise £10m to meet the £18m cap on election spending and match the Tories.

Yesterday - more than four weeks later - he gave another interview repeating the same figures, suggesting they had made no progress in the past month.

Eric Pickles, the Conservative party chairman, said: "It's frightening that day by day the unions' stranglehold on the Labour party is tightening."

Peter Wardle, chief executive of the Electoral Commission, took the Tories to task for declaring some donations late. "We are extremely disappointed with the very high number, and value, of late reported donations, especially from the Conservative party," he said. "As the general election approaches, it's especially important that voters get all the information, on time, about how political parties are funded."